Sharing a dream can turn it into a song…
Brandon Flowers, frontman of the band The Killers, from Las Vegas, shot this video with the show “Le rêve” as a backdrop: a fitting tribute to the emotions felt when entering the dreamlike world of this show. And a fitting way to declare a little local pride…
The first solo album by Brandon Flowers, Flamingo, was released in September 2010.
Hotel Bloom opened its doors in Brussels this Tuesday 11 January, a hotel in which the designers wanted to make the style inspiration shine out and express the establishment’s working philosophy of teamwork, wellbeing, sustainable development and creativity.
Primarily aimed at business clients, Hôtel Bloom wanted its conference rooms to be decorated with the portraits of people who marked their time with their enterprising spirit and their talent; figures such as of course Franco Dragone, captured right in the middle of his work by the camera of Mehdy Nasser.
100 shows. 200000 viewers.
That’s the journey taken by “The House of Dancing Water“, since the World Première in September.
What a great way to start 2011 !
When I’m creating a show, most of the time, the music is being created at the same time. So at the beginning of the creation I need a soundtrack that fit the mood and the energy of the act I’m working on.
For a few years now, I’ve been listening to Fredo Viola’s songs and because they are so creative and atmospheric, they left me enough room for my own imagination and where perfect soundtracks for the first steps of the creations.
Few months ago, Mehdy Nasser proposed to get in touch with Fredo and from then a collaboration started to grow.
A few days ago, Mehdy and Fredo met in New York City … And I can tell you now that we’re working on a little something with Fredo !
Fredo is a multi-talented artist, and the best way to have a peek at his universe is through his wonderful website .
Stay tuned !
( And don’t forget to have a look at Fredo’s video … )
Born in Rome, Giuliano Peparini trained at the prestigious School of American Ballet in New York. A soloist and then a star dancer at the Ballet de Marseille, he became the assistant of Roland Petit,and he danced and worked in the most well-known theatres throughout the world :Tokyo Opera House, Paris Opera House, Milan Scala, Naples San Carlo
He came second in the World Hip Hop Championships with the French team. As a choreographer of televised shows for Canal 5 (Portugal) and Rai Uno in Italy, he created his first international choreography – “Horses” – in 1998, at the Marseille Opera House. He moved on to “Loulou ou les Rêves d’une Anti-Star” for the Kirov (Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg) and the creation of different shows for the star dancers of the Bolchoi Theatre in Moscow.
In 2003, he created a ballet entitled “Gotan” for the Alicia Alonso Dance Foundation in Madrid. Besides his creative work, Giuliano Peparini also invests his energy in training others and has collaborated in this area with the Cirque du Soleil among other projects.
Giuliano joined our team a few years ago as a choreographer and assistant director. In this context, he worked on the “Le Rêve” show in Las Vegas and is also a member of the artistic team for “The House of Dancing Water” show. Along with me, Giuliano also took part in the opening ceremony of the Crown hotel in Macao. He is also the creator of the show and DVD by Catherine Lara “Au delà des murs”.
A travelling companion in short, faithful accomplice and now a full member of a tribe of heart, and next to our shared projects continues brililantly his adventure.
Moreover, the next show of Giuliano Peparini is playing now in Florence, on the same stage where the frame plot of the opera he staged) at the time of Lawrence Medicis: Il principe della gioventù,an OperaMusical di Riz Ortolani (musiche Riz Ortolani libretto Riz Ortolani e Ugo Chiti))
So visit the official website of the show. Watch his showreel.
You will understand …
“The House of Dancing Water” has now reached its cruising speed of nine show per week, in front of a 2000 seats audience, and is sold out until the end of the year.
To celebrate, here are a few pictures from the show !
Hit the road with our casting team, and have a peek at the auditions for our next show: “Kung Fu Panda”.
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Montreal, New York City and Orlando
The stage adaptation of the adventures of Kung Fu Panda, the hero of the famous animated film from DreamWorks Studios, has been entrusted to the Franco Dragone Entertainment Group teams. The project has been in the management phase for several months, and a major work session took place a couple of weeks ago in La Louvière.
Have you ever wondered what the creation process looks like? Join us, and enter the very peculiar world of design. See the images of what goes on behind the scenes.
We are happy to introduce a new short film produced by Franco Dragone. The title character, Willie Jones, is played by Wayne Wilson who met Franco in Las Vegas during the rehearsals for the show “Le Rêve” in which he was one of the main character.
Wayne Wilson is an American actor whose unique artistic palette extends far beyond the stage. Wayne’s vision and expressive passion have led to the creation of two critically acclaimed clown troupes, The Rotten Plantains and Your New Best Friends.
He studied with world-renowned Clown Master Pierre Byland in Switzerland, and in 2003 began performing with the National Tour of Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion. He has had the pleasure of working and learning from such notables as David Shiner, Bill Irwin, Rene Basinet, Jane Nichols, Claudio Carneiro, and Daniel Passer. Recently, he has created two digital short films in which he portrays the title character Willie Jones, an homage to the genius of works created by the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
For these short films he received the help of Franco who produced this project.
Here is one of the Willie Jones’ video :
More about the project of Wayne Wilson on his new website.
Road diary
Pascal Jacob
To which world does Pascal Jacob belong? The world of the wise, or that of the mad? Or maybe he’s just a typical Virgo with that double identification so characteristic of his star sign, representing both worlds at once.
Historian, writer, stage designer, costume designer for both opera and the circus, talent scout for the circus, teacher, collector… Pascal Jacob has turned a childhood passion into a profession: a passion for the circus.
He shares this desire to turn his most fantastic dreams into reality with the people he has met along the way who, as he writes in “La souplesse du Dragon”, “invest an unreasonable amount of themselves in their fantasies, succeeding in turning them, through the power of dreams, into opulent reality”.
In his own way, Pascal Jacob is, at heart, also a street acrobat, a saltimbanco.
You must, at least once, enter this artists’ workshop nestled in an archway under the buildings, which serves as both arch and caravan, in order to experience the dizziness of travel and be touched by an angel’s wing: you can’t help but raise your eyes.
Stacked up in a manner reminiscent of a Prévert inventory, the wings of a Museum or a quayside where the suitcases for an imminent departure are piled on top of each other; hundreds of objects, gathered together through Pascal Jacob’s ever watchful meticulousness, are on display. Hiding and adding together, they recount, like rare childhood treasures, the wonderful saga of the circus.
However, only a tiny part of Pascal Jacob’s collection, which contains over 17,000 items, is assembled here; a significant portion is now housed by the Cité du Cirque in Montreal.
However, it forms a world in its own right, which lives and breathes from one object to the next as it is explored by the fascinated visitor: every canvas, every etching, every poster, every bronze, every piece of earthenware, every piece of costume is brimming with meaning and has its own story to tell; a story that Pascal Jacob recounts with breath-taking learnedness and a desire for shared communication.
The animal engravings of mice, the face of Popov sculpted in film, the remains of the posts which supported the first Barnum Circus canvas, preserved like religious relics, as well as many other things: nothing here could be described as dull or boring.
Sit yourself down under our big top and let yourself be carried away: all you have to do is watch and listen.
Above all else, Pascal Jacob is, at heart, a wonderful storyteller…
English subtitle coming soon …